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No, it really isn’t my birthday. It just feels that way, because Tony Sutton, the current chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota and its former treasurer, has pretty much begged the media to look into his financial dealings. By trying to get the local media to bite on the Most Pathetic Smear Attempt Ever, he’s made himself fair game. Oh, goody!
We’ve already touched on the collapse of his Baja Sol fleet of restaurants; what was once planned to be a nationwide chain has rapidly shrunk back to a handful of locations in Minnesota, and even those are dropping in number. His career as the RPM’s treasurer was marred in similar fashion, as MN Observer related last year:
He’s the one whose name is most closely associated with the horrific accounting and auditing nightmare that is the treasury of the RPM. He’s been front and center in that complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission and he’s the one who has had rather pointed questions directed at him by the FEC here, here, here, and here. He also had to send in those humiliating letters – over and over and over again – stating that “An amended report correcting this error will be filed when the committee’s internal audit has been completed.” In short, he was apparently the doofus in charge as this mess was allowed to fester and grow into what some think will eventually lead to the largest FEC fine in history for poor bookkeeping.
And of course, the whole pretext for giving him the RPM chair gig was his much-trumpeted “business experience”.
Like I said, it’s my birthday.
But wait! Three months after shutting down a restaurant in a high-traffic food court in downtown Minneapolis, and less than a year after shutting down the last of their Ohio locations, Baja Sol is allegedly On The Move:
…Baja Sol President Bridget Sutton — who owns the chain along with her husband, Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Tony Sutton, and TCF Financial Corp. Chairman and CEO Bill Cooper — said the company is gearing up for a new wave of expansion, turning to corporate growth instead of franchising until the economy rebounds.
Yeah — they’re on the move, and that move is known as “circling the drain”. I’m not sure that even the Coopers are truly stupid enough to pump any more dough into this turkey farm before they finally give up on it. But it would be loverly if they did.
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Well, happy pretend birthday, PW.
You guys might want to check out my new digs here. It’s called Give Us This Day Our Daily Dread and my alter ego Mike Flannigan gets things off with a bang with “Afterbirth of a Nation“, a lengthy analysis of post-9/11 America. Hope to see you there.
A very merry unbirthday, to you, PW.
Hey, there’s lotsa money in turkey farms. Much better than restaurants.
How bad are the Republican tacos at the Baja Sol, anyway?
For the money, it’s hard to beat the Genetically Modified Corn Delights at Taco Bell.
How much better can a Republican make a Genetically Modified Taco at a Food Court for a higher price?
Liberals should boycott all R enterprises.
The Coopers have a thing for doling out wingnut welfare to fellow RPM members and other political allies, it would seem. One of the Baja Sol franchisees is, IIRC, a big muckety-muck with the Minnesota Taxpayers League.
You know what’s really funny about all this?
This comes right after the RPM staged its Annual Hissy Fit over a doughnut booth at the Minnesota State Fair that’s operated on behalf on some local Democrats. The booth’s only open for ten days out of the year, and there’s only one, whereas the intent for Baja RPM was to become a nationwide chain open year-round.
Any hints as to the nature of the Minnesota GOP’s financial trouble’s? Are they broke, is money missing Tony Sutton’s fast food chain is in trouble could he be skimming from the GOP to help his chain?
Is he holding GOP events at his restaurants and charging the GOP fees that are excessive. Or is it just bad record keeping?
Hmn, I can’t find Baja Sol listed in the Zaggat Guide.
There must be some mistake.
Thanks for the update on Sutton & Baja Sol, and merry unbirthday to you.
Ye olde IOKIYAR always seems to apply, doesn’t it? If Sutton was a Democrat and trying to do the same thing for Dems, the R’s would be shrieking (with some justification) about what a crappy business person he is, how corrupt, yadda yadda. But bc he’s an R – even though he’s a lousy business person – the Rs turn on the mighty wurlitzer that trumpets out what a “great business person” Sutton is. And the R voters get in line to buy the b.s.
Annoying but eminently predictable.
Due to the bad economy some renters are raising rates to cover real estate losses in other areas that might be why he pulled out. But that would mean he was not making enough money at that location to justify staying there.
Just how is the food at his places if there is a McDonalds or another Mexican Food place in town who gets the bigger crowds? What do the locals say about his food?
By turing to Corporate Growth I presume they mean restaurants they control directly. Are the restaurants that have closed were they franchised owned or did they own them?
Also in this economy nobody is getting financing especially not for the over crowded fast food sector.
All GOPers are great businessmen but the government regulations caused them to fail its never their fault./s Plus whenever possible they try and get government contracts Darth’s KBR made showers that electrocuted our troops in Iraq.
GOPers are the reason we need to regulate business
You know, this situation has me rather conflicted because Jabba the Sutton (thanks to PW for the perfect new nickname) has employed some of the friendliest, most hard working people I’ve ever met in a fast-food environment.
The stores he built his business on are staffed almost exclusively by immigrant labor, including the managers.
The food is very fresh and delicious and the stores are bright and spotless.
(I was a customer for a couple of years before I learned that they were owned by this jerk.)
That said, I’ve been in what I think must be newer, franchised stores, run by local owners who it seems, are not quite with the program, and that is where many franchise organizations fail.
For some reason, your typical suburban franchisee with a bunch of apathetic teenage employees have a hard time delivering the same dining experience that Jabba’s immigrant employees deliver with so much poise.
While I have no real sympathy for Jabba, I feel for the immigrant employees who’ve helped him build his business, and will probably suffer disproportionately if he fails, because I get the feeling he’s the type who will not continue running the stores if he can’t get the franchise thing going.
I know I’m dreaming here, but a fantastic outcome would be that his employees were to take over the businesses they run so well, when and if, as I suspect, Jabba fails at empire-building and gets tired of being an actual small-businessman.
If I had a lot of money to invest, I’d certainly consider financing an effort by Jabba’s current employees to purchase the stores from him when he decides to go on to the next big thing.
Good trained immigrants can find work at other fast food places many work 2 jobs already since bosses don’t like to pay overtime. Are all of his workers work visa people? Or are they illegal? You would think Obama and Rahm if they were real Chicago pols would be sending INS after GOP businesses.
INS is deporting more people under Obama than Bush did why aren’t they going after GOP business?
WI public radio and television ran an informative one hour election special to feature candidates in the major primary state races last night. GOPher’s were highlighted most because they have several hot primary contests. Feingold’s likely opponent, Ron (no seeming limit to personal campaign financing) Johnson refused to participate and explain his position. And these were basically individual meet and greet interviews and not even debates. Geesh.
Scott Walker, official republican
prickpick for governor refused to participate as his primary challenger Mark Neumann seems to have narrowed the race to 50/50. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barret(D) has been, until this week, holding off with major campaigning, I am guessing, until after the repub primary opponent is actually decided.Oh, many happy returns of the day, Phoenix Women. I’d give you the pretty little sand dollar I found at the beach for a bday gift, but I just gave it to RBG for helping me with a password problem. Take a hug instead?
I don’t know the INS status of Jabba’s employees, I do know that I’ve seen the same faces for years, and they deserve any credit for the business’ success.
They deserve much more than to be passed on to another Jabba.
I’m sure that Jabba the Sutton has made many promises to these people and after years of enjoying their hospitality and admiring their cooking skill and hard work I hate to think that anyone considers them just “good trained immigrants”.
By the way, it would be truly tragic to think anybody would attack Jabba by attacking his employees.
Promises yes more pay and benefits no. The boss is your best friend if your a good worker and he has at least one clue how to run a business.
But this jerk supports AZ immigration law his employees are fair game now raid them.
I bet he uses but they gave me a SS number defense. Any employer who thinks a number is funny can call SS and ask if its a real number and who it belongs to if its real.
All the fast food chains never call all the GOPers hate immigrants but never hold the business that employs them responsible even when its their business.
Let’s try a thought game;
But this jerk supports taxing rich people, his his base is fair game now what say we raid their Social Security.
Don’t get me wrong, I support holding employers accountable, but I also want the process to be transparent and applied in a fair and consistant manner.
I can’t get behind immigration enforcement used as tool of vendetta, no matter how creepy the employer is.
Hypocrites profess beliefs in something that they don’t really believe this is an election a candidates real beliefs are fair game. If he believe in AZ law and he employs immigrants then we are not engaging in vendetta we are exposing the truth.
Okay delurking… No offense to PW or any other Minnesotans out there but a Mexican restaurant based out of Minnesota??? No thanks! Though, having the Sutton’s as owners of Baja Sol is enough reason in and of itself no to eat there.
Here I was all excited that you shared a birthday with Markos, PW. But no….
Teddy, you forgot the snark tag, non?
PW, maybe you should hang around during the evening hours at the “high-traffic food court location” and get back to us about what a nifty place it is.
Fixed.
Meanwhile, it IS my rightie sister’s birthday, so I guess I have to call her. I have promising news on the job front, though, so hopefully I can distract her with a shiny object. :-)
If that’s the best you can do, Mr. Emmer, I feel sorry for you. Not.
By the way, Chipotle — another “fresh Mex” chain, but one that isn’t run by doofuses — doesn’t seem to be having any trouble making money in downtown Minneapolis, or anywhere else:
Kinda blows Baja Sol’s “Oh but it’s all the horrid economy’s fault” excuse out of the water, eh?
Not to mention one of the other big questions;
How bad a businessman does a guy have to be to fail if his partner is his banker?
Tony and Bridget Sutton owned the one in downtown Minneapolis that closed (and is mentioned in this post), and the ones in Ohio were in part owned by one of the Cooper family. Bill Cooper and one of his sons opened a bank in suburban Columbus in the mid-aughties, but no telling if it was the lender for the failed restaurants.
Chipotle, which covers similar terrain, recently opened its thousandth restaurant — and its earnings have gone up, not down, over the same time period that saw Baja Sol shuttering all its non-Minnesota locations.
Funny, isn’t it, how these exponents of free-market survival of the fittest have to be propped up by other people’s money.
Yes it is funny, and it’s also funny that the franchise game that Jabba is trying to win is so simular to a bubble, and gambling, and eventually even fraud.
It seems that free-market republicans got themselves addicted to casino capitalism eventually, and they’ve done less, and less every year since.
They’ve achieved gambler’s psychosis.
They will not do anything but gamble.
The trouble is they think they can make more money if they can make all of us do less too.
So that’s what they have been doing; finding ways to keep us from doing all those things that must to be done, because they think our expectation of a reasonable wage, is unreasonable.
One of the main problems is that they are not getting the messages that the market is sending;
First, all the people who you insist must do nothing so you can make more money, have no money themselves because you insist they do nothing, and since they have no money, they cannot buy your products.
Second, The ironic fact that the immigrants who Jabba employs to keep us doing nothing, eventually open their own restaurants, so from one end of the Twin Cities to the other there are probably a hundred small Mexican restaurants owned by Mexicans, where three tacos cost $6 instead of $9.
Since Jabba can’t hear the messages the market is sending, he can’t really be considered a businessman, he’s actually a gambler, and right now he’s losing.
It’s funny.